


You Built A Better Part Of Me

by Zarius



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Barbara Gordon is Batgirl, Batgirl#50, Batman: Three Jokers - Freeform, Drama & Romance, Emotional, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Letters, Red Hood and the outlaws#50, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:35:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27245083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius
Summary: My Fix-Fic for Batgirl#50 and Three Jokers#3. Battling crooks in an alley, Jason and Babs talk about recent events, Jason feels he can't let Babs go without saying at least something before the rain comes pouring down once more...
Relationships: Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon/Jason Todd
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	You Built A Better Part Of Me

**Author's Note:**

> I read Batgirl#50 the other day and was appalled at how the book depicted Barbara, particularly the bit where she tears down Dick Grayson. And then there's the heartbreak of Jason not having his letter read in Three Jokers#3. 
> 
> I feel many people themselves interpreted Babs's journey in Three Jokers differently than I did, she had a compelling journey in her own right in that book that simply wasn't exclusively "get payback on the Joker". Each Bat-Character has a unique perspective on their situations and Jason is really the only one who has "direct" revenge on one version of the villain. I feel Babs helped put Jason on a straighter path than he'd ever been on and I wanted him to let her know how thankful he was for that.
> 
> I know Three Jokers has an ambiguous continuity to it, but the idea that there is a chance Babs could directly sabotage her relationship with the hideous Jason Bard appeals to me also. So mix all these enticing ingredients together and you get this fic. Enjoy.

The night should be peaceful, the night should be still.

Never in Gotham City.

The evening should be quiet, people should reflect

Never in Gotham City.

Here, the commotion is deafening, there is no time for reflection unless, if you commit acts of villainy or short and brutish violence, you're behind a cold, dead and hollow cell or padded room.

And that's only after your features align with the fist of one of many champions of the city.

In this case, it was Batgirl and the Red Hood.

Like ships, they pass through the mists of evening onto the sea of troubles, summoned by the audible pleas of the innocent as they are victimised by the end of a gun nozzle, a petty hand outstretched demanding they hand over their comforting riches, so that they too can feel enriched, and further empowered.

But now, as the Bat descended from the second tier of the building, as the Hood charged through the alley on his motorcycle, the crooks in question, five of them in total, realised now was the chance to defy judgement, to raise their hands to these agents from god, and defy the presence of their divine overseer.

If they could skirt past its angels, they would be rewarded well by their demons.

It was an impossible feat. A humbling experience.

As Batgirl and Red Hood mopped the floor with the criminals, the victims fled, send them fleeting moments of praise, all while being encouraged further to leave the scene behind them

"What the hell are you doing here?" Barbra Gordon asked of Jason Todd.

"Figured you needed a hand. A literal handful, easy pickings for two of a kind with experience" Jason explained, levelling one crook with a sharp uppercut and savagely kicking another in the temple with a swift right legged strike. He clotheslined him just as his hands pressed against his head, knocking himself senseless on the cobbled floor.

"Are you tailing me?" Barbara inquired further, performing some somersaults to avoid sharp punches, using one of those gymnastics to throw her legs into the jaw of one crook that sent him reeling back into the path of another, and then bumped straight into Jason, who grabbed both of their heads and smashed them together. They crumpled to the ground.

Just as Batgirl dusted off her hands, Jason caught sight of the last crook trying to make his getaway with the goods. In desperation, he even tried to mount Jason's motorcycle, only for it to fall over with him on it.

"Oh, I do love me a happy accident" Jason remarked, he ran up to the felon, and threw him against the wall, inspecting his assets, he was wearing them around his neck.

Peculiar, but apt for commentary.

"Pearls huh? Y'know something, my old man's mother had a thing for those. When she fell to the bang that came from a squeezed trigger, the pearls snapped off her neck"

Jason produced a gun from his jacket and placed it under the criminals' neck, grabbing the pearls as he did so.

"Would you like to know just how cheap the cost of one life is compared to these?"

Babs was unnerved.

"Jason, don't..."

Red Hood peered into the criminal's pupils; they were ripe with water as tears of merciful prayer cascaded down his cheeks.

"Focus Jason, focus" Barbra insisted.

Jason lowered the weapon, and snapped the pearls off the neck, followed by a swift headbutt that levelled the crook.

"Those pearls looked expensive" Babs said, picking one of them off the floor.

"You could always piece them together and try for the look yourself, you'd sparkle" Todd said, complimenting her.

"What brought you to these parts?" Babs asked.

"Heard reports of a wild cowled redhead swing around in this vast urban grass, figured I'd check if it was Artemis. Glad it's still you" Jason remarked.

"Just what is it with amazons and Bats?" Babs asked.

"Diana's had sights occasionally set on Bruce; Artemis was good company at the time"

"I'm surprised Donna Troy never made any real moves on Dick" Babs joked, a nervous twitch in her voice.

Jason suspected from the tone something was amiss.

"How is Dick?"

"I...was mad at him. Couldn't think straight. I feel like all the craziness with my brother's death, dad constantly tearing away at the deeds of my costumed identity, Dick's amnesia, how he and Bea treated the rest of the family in all that time, and how I was running that campaign I support, how I let myself be so radicalized by the protests, and how I was handling Jason, Bard that is, not you, it was too much. I needed someone laying under that bus instead of driving it forward with me as the passenger. I should apologise to him, he thinks I hate him. I don't, I just need him to remember who he is, I want my Dick back, he's in such a bad place"

"So are you"

"That's why I told him to put in the work. In my own half-assed mind I figured if I could convince him to start from scratch with me, earn my friendship again, it'd remind him of how much I meant to him, how much I still mean. In a wild, imaginative way, I thought then he could maybe help in sorting out my issues with my campaign, use his funding from Bruce to give us some viable resources...but maybe that was me being selfish, demanding too much."

"And Bard?"

"Now you know why that had to be just a moment between us"

Jason realised all too swiftly what that evening, that enchanted, life-altering evening that meant so dear to him, had meant to him.

She'd still been seeing Bard.

And now Todd knew the same as she did.

She hadn't read his letter.

Or maybe she did, and she didn't care to tell him how she felt.

He had anticipated that possibility, and, true to his word, he didn't bring himself to mention it. He understood.

"Storm is gathering" Barbra noted.

"Think the rain could start falling?" Jason asked.

"Hope not. Wouldn't know what to say this time"

"Just say you need me, and I'm there" Jason said.

Barbra smiled, and slowly began walking away from him.

Jason felt compelled to share something else, he couldn't just let her go, and he knew he couldn't repeat what he had said in the letter, not directly.

"He was right, you know. There is potential for a better Joker out there"

Barbra froze, aghast at what he had just said.

"What?"

"The Joker. The three of them. Their plan. His plan. Whoever it was, they wanted to build a better Joker, but what they got instead was me. A guy who may not always see the funny side, but is wise enough to know there's nothing twisted behind the laughter. A guy who may have their cunning, their ruthlessness, but what he can see is just a little bit more of the light, not the whole of the darkness"

"You're no Joker Jason, don't ever tell yourself otherwise"

""If this were anyone else talking, if this was Bruce talking, I wouldn't listen, and deep down he'd want me to be in the right there, he always feels he lets us down and that we let him know it, but no, you're right, because you have to be. So long as you say it, then I can be sure I'm not a better Joker, I'm a better Red Hood. And those Jokers didn't build it Babs. You did. You built a better part of me, and I can never forget that, and I will never, ever forget you""

Barbra didn't know what to say.

Fitting, as the storm had gathered, and the tears of rain fell down.


End file.
